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Has it been a few minutes? A few hours? By the soft sheen of ice and snow on Blackbird and his tightly curled-around ward, Sadaka, it's probably somewhere in-between. He's done his best to protect her from the elements, digging them into a small and hopefully-insulating snowbank in the dilapidated hut in the middle of nowhere and curling his body around her for warmth. But now he's out again, though his heart is still beating and his breath is still making slivers of fog.

The little zebra has curled herself into a little striped ball, huddled against her papa and looking pretty well out of it herself, shivering occasionally but otherwise lying mostly still. She would lift her head sometimes to look for the white-suited pony's return, though it had been a while since her last peek.

There's a rumbling sound of debris nearby as the hidden entrance to the Horseshoe Base is magically opened. A pair of what at first appears to be foals stand at the darkened passageway, the lights off on the slim chance that there's a Nightmare patrol anywhere in the vicinity. "Are you you sure wish to come along?" Snowfield asks her companion. "This is far colder than your typical jaunt in Wintersong, if you don't keep moving you may not make it back. Especially not as small as you are now." As she did the last few times she's gone out into the barren plains the unicorn is traveling sans snowsuit.

Her companion, however, has managed to rig together something warming out of a blanket he found somewhere. It's not amazing, but it'll do the job and still let him fly. "Pegasi are better with the cold than other ponies: it gets really cold when you're high up. An' I want to help." The last sentence comes with a little hoofscuff before he flaps his wings and takes to the air. "What if you get lost? What if something happens?"

Blackbird doesn't rouse at the sounds or the presence of new ponies.

"Then I head north into the forest, build myself an igloo and continue my life as if I had never come into the Harbor on Friday in the first place," Snowfield says with a roll of her eyes. "It's not /that/ different from our world. Just colder. Though I'll need to relearn what plants are edible here." Ever since the shenanigans with Salty she hasn't been able to take for granted that poisons won't effect her.

The unicorn's horn glows as she picks up some of the snow and ice from the ground and whirls it around herself, forming her own personal igloo around her body. It almost makes her normal pony sized! Almost. Also blue and icy in an almost windigo-esque fashion.

Jellybean says "But what would we do, Snowfield? Nopony wants you to just disappear," he offers with the infuriating reasonableness of a polite child. "I'm going to stay with you in case something happens."

"The same thing you do every day, Jellybean," replies Snowfield as she begins to trot out into the cold. "Hug everything and cause trouble." She glances over her shoulder at the foal. "Look, I have a lot of thinking to do, alright? And I do it best when I'm out in the cold. It's easier to focus on what's most important when everything else is shut down."

Jellybean whimpers a little but remains true to his word and starts following after Snowfield without any complaint. To be fair this is /still/ quite cold by his standards, but that's why he brought the blanket-toga. Bloga? Tanket? Anyway. This whole place is giving him a funny feeling.

And up pops a zebra head again. Just for a moment, peeking back towards the forest. And then back down it goes. For all Sadaka knew the pony'd passed by ten times already; she wasn't sure she'd be able to make out the white suit against the white snow in the dark. But every time she woke up enough to think of it she'd look, anyway.

"Really, this is probably a blessing in disguise," Snowfield continues. "For me, anyway. Things were getting far too complicated back at the Harbor for my tastes. Between all of that nonsense with the mayor and that last conversation I had with Blackbird, it's probably for the best that I was flung out of the timeline entirely. There's far less drama this way." She glances back at Jellybean. "Not that it's any comfort to you. I imagine you were quite happy with the way things were getting complicated. I'm sure that Redmane will find a way to get you back, though. He may have lost his star pupil, but he /did/ get some powerful unicorns in exchange who might be able to… huh." She squints at the abandoned huts that mark the location of the hidden base. "Did you just see something?"

Jellybean's ears flick a little when Snowfield talks about wanting things to be simpler: he wanted things to be simpler, too. Didn't really work out. But her question is met with a nod. "Uh-huh! It was that way!" he adds, pointing before wheeling around and flying in that direction. "I don't think it's anything dangerous!"

The two ponies are easily missed, surrounded by snow as they are and with the thin glaze of frost on top. Especially since they're both relatively light-coated, Sadaka's stripes notwithstanding. But there, in an out-of-the-way corner of the hut is the unmistakable form of at least /some/ pony lying there under the snow.

"It looked like something moving," Snowfield says as she skates through the ruined hits completely unhindered by the snow drifts. "There shouldn't be anything here light enough to flutter, I would think. The storms would have torn all of that loose years and years ago. She glances in one of the huts and finds nothing. "It wasn't this one, Jellybean. Check the other huts."

Jellybean looks around some, head tilting this way and that as he looks for anything out-of-place. Then: "There!" he cries, flying off again towards the pony-shape underneath the snow.

Snowfield trots after Jellybean when he calls out. "What is it? It's not a creature, is it? I'll have you know that I refuse to be held responsible for you being eaten by some manner of nightmarish monstrocity."

Jellybean reaches the spot and starts nosing the snow. "No, it's a pony!"

Indeed! It's /two/ ponies! Blackbird is passed out cold around a shivering Sadaka, under the snow and ice.

Sadaka blinks blearily, twitching her ears at the voice. "Wha… nnh… h-hello?" she manages faintly, peeking her head up again.

Snowfield enters the hut and looks at the lump of pony under a thin veneer of snow. Her head tilts with curiousity as she reaches a hoof forward to brush the snow out of the larger pony's face…

"Celestia, dang it all!" the unicorn mutters when she sees who the stallion is. Sadaka poking her head up from the curled Blackbird elicits a sigh of resignation. "It figures, doesn't it? I get thrown out of the time stream entirely and you all are /still here/."

The icey mare turns around and gives Blackbird a stern kick in the side with one hoof. "Hey! Wake up, you! Are you planning on being a meat popsicle for Nightmare Night?"

Blackbird oofs and wheezes, just barely opening his eyes. "Mnnh," he mumbles.

Jellybean whines when Snowfield feels the need to put the hooves in. "Snowfield, don't! Can't you see they're freezing?" He lands and starts fussing over both, trying to help them up. "C'mon, get up! You need to get moving to warm up."

"That is hardly an excuse," Snowfield snaps at Jellybean. "Honestly, you two are such trouble makers! If it's not the foal wandering into danger it's you not thinking about the consequences of your actions." Her horn glows once more as she picks up the two ponies. She's a little more gentle with Sadaka, who is floated into the air surrounded by a cushion of magic that wards off the cold air. Blackbird, however, gets the ol' grab-by-the-scruff technique which has served Snowfield so well in the past.

By the time Blackbird's floated out into the air, his eyes have opened a little more, though he doesn't seem a whole lot more coherent. "S…Snowf-f-f-field…?" he rasps.

"He'll get up when he's good and ready," grumbles Snowfield, ignoring Blackird's stuttered utterance of her name as she walks out into the wastes again. "Go fly ahead and have them open the door, will you?"

It's cold, so Jellybean is pretty much already rosy-cheeked, but now he's also blushing. "I was stupid," he says.

"Stop being stupid and start being a door opener," Snowfield says sternly to the easily distracted Jellybean.

Jellybean nodnods, still blushing, and flies off to get the door open for everypony else.

Sadaka blinks, taking a few moments to realize she's not on the ground anymore. WHERE DID THE GROUND GO. She squirms and flails, blinking blearily. "Wh-what… where… wh-what're you… P-papa? Papa!"

"Complainers, the lot of you," Snowfield grunts.

Blackbird goes slack in relief when he hears Sadaka speaking, what meager energy he had starting to filter out. Especially with the cold winter air around him. He starts to shiver a little, muttering, "D-did you h-h-havvvve to b-b-bring us out of th-the s-s-snnnowdrift to d-d-d-die?"

"Still with the complaining! Honestly!" With a glow of magic the unicorn's little windigo suit begins to puff up like a balloon until it looks like some sort of obese turtle. The top opens up so that Blackbird and Sadaka can be pulled inside. It is marginally warmer here thanks to the igloo effect, although their pace towards the base is now significantly slowed thanks to the waddling gait this new ice armor gives Snowfield.

Jellybean has the door open and is hopping back and forth nervously as he waits for the other ponies to get back.

"Ye—" Snowfield begins before remembering that Sadaka will take anything she says literally. "…no. A teleportation spell got messed up and a bunch of us got stuck inside of a storybook. The hero hasn't shown up yet so you'll have to be brave while we figure out what to do about the wicked witch in the meanwhile." She doesn't grace Blackbird's complaining about complaining with another response. Complainer.

"It's one of those 'alternate history' books where the author takes a major world event and writes about what it would be like if things turned out a different way," the forest witch continues as she toddles closer to the entrance and the awaiting Jellybean. "So don't be too scared if you hear everypony talking about Nightmare Moon or anything like that." She glances over her shoulder at Blackbird. "I'll tell you which one later, Blackbird, you might've read it before."

Sadaka blinks and nods slowly. "Oh… I… I think I know th-that story, sorta…"
Jellybean trots out of the doorway and behind Snowfield, nudging her currently icy rump with his head. Impatient to get his friends inside, apparently.

"Oh, that's good," Snowfield says. "Then you remember that the good guys win at the end, right? So there's— don't be so impatient! Really!" She tries to give Jellybean a kick for good measure, but the turtle-esque ice shell she's wearing makes her far too fat to reach anything. "Fine, we're here, happy now?"

The unicorn's horn glows and the front of the shell melts away, revealing the entrance to the underground base and several medics who were alerted that there were injured ponies coming in.

A certain turquoise mare is accompanying the medics - however her presence goes unknown thanks to those husky cold-suits worn by the base occupants; it's easier to hide when everypony is bundled up, now isn't it? Ruby curiously peeks over the shoulders of the medics to try and see /exactly/ what's going on!

As the snowy shell melts away, a half-conscious Blackbird appears to be floating in a magic scruff-grip from Snowfield, while his ward the wee zebra is floating on a supportive cushion of magic instead. They've both got the beginnings of frostbite from curling out in the cold too long.

Sadaka peeks up over the edge of the ice shell, blinking blearily over at the group of suited ponies.

Jellybean whimpers and whines but is doing his best to stay out from underhoof at this point, letting the grown-ups do the important work.

Ruby-Blossom gasps quietly as she sees Blackbird and Sadaka in peril - a distinct frown crossing her face; not that any pony can notice through her lowered visor. As much as she'd like to take care of the pair at the moment, she can do little more than stand aside, and let the medics do their job. Hiding sure has it's downsides. She spies /something/ she can do without exposing her cover - quickly snagging Jellybean off the cold ground to keep the foal out of harm's way!

"Don't make the bigger one too comfortable," Snowfield says to the medics. "He's putting a serious damper in my quest of self-discovery. If you'll excuse me, I'm going back outside for a while." The turtleshell flakes away into a flurry of snow before reforming around the little mare into her windigo suit again. "Don't wait up for me. And Jellybean, stay with Sadaka."

Jellybean lets out a startled yelp when one of the suited ponies picks him up, little legs and wings flailing. "Please put me down," he says, trying not to sound too upset but clearly not happy being mare-handled by somepony he doesn't know. Snowfield gets an obedient little nod from him.

Blackbird and Sadaka are rested into makeshift stretchers, which, at least as Snowfield might like, are a little too small for gangly Blackbird. The medics nod at Ruby as she hustles up the pegasus foal. "Better not let you out there, young un," one says seriously to Jelly. "You're just what the queen wants, and that's bad for you."

"Queen?" mumbles Blackbird. "S-Salty's not a queen…"

Solar-Wind manages to make it up to the top of the entry, the hut and peers outside scanning the horizon for someone he may or may not recognize. He's managed to find himself a thermal cloak, It doesn't cover his wings, but tucks around them, but other than that he's just got his own non-thermal jumpsuit on. He tromps a few hoofsteps out into the snow then the wind hits him, and he's suddenly bolt wide awake looking at the wide open, claustrophobia leaves him for now, and its just open out here, wide open! He unfurls his wings and jumps skyward to survey this place, cold, yes, oh so cold, even though he's tuned for it, this is still /freeking/ cold

Sadaka blinks and frowns, looking around uneasily. "Wh-what queen? I-is it an evil queen?" Lots of stories had evil queens, after all. If they were in a storybook, that was /her/ guess.

Ruby-Blossom smiles at Jelly through her visor; not that foal can see. Her gruff little soldier voice sounding more akin to a Storm Trooper thanks to the muffling effect of the visor. "I'll put you down in a moment, Je.." catching herself! "Just stay calm." she corrects herself on the fly before holding Jelly a little tighter to keep him closer to the warmth of the suit at least until the doors shut, and the stretchers pass by. "Just don't get in the medics way." she tells the foal before setting him down.

The medics look to Solar, as they lift the debris for the the ponies to be brought inside. "Sir, you haved medical experience, right? We could use some more hooves on deck with it…"

Indeed, Blackbird has pretty much passed out again, and they're having trouble balancing the stretchers between two ponies.

Jellybean nodnods again, still looking a little unsure of what to think about the strange mare. However, he was told to do something by a grown-up and he's going to be a good foal and listen to her, which means he's now flying alongside Sadaka's stretcher and fussing over her. "They're talking about Nightmare Moon. She never went away here, I think."

Solar-Wind cracks a firm salute, "Aye Sir" he states crisply, "to Tartarus with the stretcher though, strong back, just watch the wings, Got any hot water packs, sources of steam? hot showers? bring his temps back up without scalding?" he asks with quick precision as he trots up and turns so that his backside is more apt to have a pony slung over it. "Who all is effected?" he asks quicklike, the quick chill obviously did him some good

"We have some hot showers, if we can get Heatsink to turn up the boilers. She's queen of the steam around here." The medic pony shakes his head and eyes the pegasus's backside. "They really ought to be kept level, and draping this big guy over you is perhaps a less-than-favorable decision." The other medic, however, speaks up: a girl. "The little one would be okay though. Can you take the zebra foal?"

Sadaka blinks over at Jellybean, nodding — then doing a bit of a double-take. "Mr… Jellybean? Is th-that you? You're… you're little." Blinkblink. She peers at him, trying to make sure it /was/ him and she wasn't just seeing things.

Solar-Wind says "alright" he nods some, "you can still hike that streacher up betwixt my wings, on my shoulders if ya need someone strong" he offers and looks to the foal, "I've gotcha little one" he smiles boldly to the Zebra foal, "Ya can ride up here with me" he smiles then looks back to the Medics, "Water should go from luke warm, on up to body temperature, though not a fast pace, gotta keep him slow or he'll go the other way around, Somebody try to keep him awake, please" he asks more pleads, "have some other ponies soak some towels with hot water, for after he gets through with the shower, for hooves, ears, nose, that sort" he states without pause really."

Jellybean nods, looking hang-dog. "I was bad and didn't take the cure," he explains to her. "I was going to but then we got brought here."

Ruby-Blossom beams quietly from under her visor (Thatta boy Solar. Way better than going stir-crazy.) The feeling of satisfaction seeping through to her body language - making her stick out among the rather downcast crowd. She pipes up again "I think we should get a move on it, no use standing around here."

"Oh," Sadaka responds simply, then, "…Were you s-scared of the f-fountain too?" She had indeed been quite hesitant to take a bath in the stuff — though she must have at some point, because the target mark has disappeared from her once-again blank flank. …Speaking of baths. She perks her ears a bit, frowning. "…Are w-we gonna have to go in the w-water? I-is Papa Blackbird okay?"

Jellybean shakes his head. "I was scared of… other stuff. Dumb stuff. Grown-up stuff. And don't worry, you and your Papa are going to be okay. They're just going to use the water to warm you up, that's all."

They're starting to head downstairs, now that everything is situated, with Solar's wings assisting a bit with Blackbird's stretcher. "Of course," the male says snippily to Solar. "We know how to deal with the cold." The other medic, however, gives him a sound kick to the back knee, making him swear. "Thank you for your assistance," she says graciously, and genuinely. "Especially with ponies showing up like this every day, we need all hooves on deck."

To Sadaka, she gives a small nod. "We'll do what we can for your papa, little one."

Ruby-Blossom reaches out to gently touch Sadaka on the head in a reassuring fashion. "You need to brave it for the moment little one. We need to get you, and Blackbird warmed up properly. Please endure it for the moment?" she might come off as more comforting if she wasn't so bundled up, and hidden!"

Solar-Wind grunts a little at the implied insult but carrys on back inside. "Ya can stay up there on my shoulders while we warm up some water for you two, I'll stay here the whole time, n'd make sure you and your dad are safe" He nods slightly to the second medic, "Glad to be of assistance" he states kindly to her as they make their way down to the barrax showers, shouldering around the occasional other pony. "Mmmjust here to help" he notes, He makes his way to the showers cranking up knobs and shoving his muzzle in to check for temperature, before hauling himself slowly in and in with him is the zebra foal, and that stretcher behind, "Here we go!" he grins back to the foal

The other medics carefully deposit Blackbird in another shower, while a third nearby scrambles off to requisition hot water from Heatsink. For now, the water is frigid and icy, but within a few minutes it starts to slowly heat. As it does, the medics in with Blackbird start to turn on the water.

Sadaka squeaks but holds on tightly, though she relaxes notably to find it an overhead shower as opposed to being dunked in a tub. She jumps a bit at the initial icy spray, wincing and craning her neck to try to keep an eye on Blackbird as best she could.

Jellybean watches and frets quietly for the moment.

Ruby-Blossom settles near Sadaka's shower - curiously watching as Sadaka and Blackbird are tended to. Already she's pondering thoughtfully - she lifts her visor when no pony else is looking to flash Sadaka a smile; her distinct ruby red eyes certainly won't go unnoticed if Sadaka manages to catch her. A moment later she stands up, intent on taking a little action.

Other medics are running around outside with buckets and blankets and towels and cloths, but in the stall across from Sadaka, her papa's starting to shiver again. Which is good! His nervous system is waking up.

Solar-Wind gives a quick shiver as that first bit of water cascades down, "not like the showers back home" he mentions as he turns around some in the stream of water poring down, so that Sadaka may have a better view of them working with her father. Darn partition thingy. Buff Pegasi leans into it physically, and firmly with a little bouncebouncebounce, enough, just barely enough so that it /angles/ slightly out so the foal can have a better view, and leans back into the stream with the foal. "Yer dad's gonna be just fine, its a good sign, trust me, he'll be fine, just gotta get you warmed up too and everything will be fine." He murmurs as he lets out a big sigh. Big guy's been up nearly 2 and a half days now and maybe he's coming down from whatever adrenaline high he's been working with. He murmurs softly, "So tired" he sighs some, but continues to notch up the temp till its rightly body temperature or so. "Ya feel yer ears, yer hooves alright?" he asks of his passenger.

Sadaka nods slightly, slowly relaxing a bit. She does catch Ruby's glance and smile, ears perking up a bit as she smiles back shakily. She looks down at Solar, twitching each bejewelled ear and looking down at her hooves. "Y-yeah, I th-think so, s-sir… they're k-kinda sore." She rubs one of said ears stiffly, giving a little sniffle.

Off in the showers, where a pair of hypothermia victims are being tended to by medical, Blackbird is starting to rouse and Sadaka's starting to warm under the shower. Finally. It had felt like she'd never be warm again! The big pony in the stall opposite hers twitches his limbs and sneezes suddenly, lifting his head blearily.

One of the other medics nudges Jellybean. "You okay, little one? Do you need any blankets?"

Magpie pokes her nose into the room, ears twitching. She's trying her best to be unobtrusive, just out of habit really.

Solar-Wind murmurs more mumbles then restarts, "Yeah, your hooves n ears gonna feel a bit sore n prickily for a bit till all the feeling comes, back, keep rubbing em together to get the feeling back, just don't rub to hard or you'll get some bad bruises, and I don't want that Ok" he offers the advice to Sadaka then smiles looking up from his positon with his head against the wall, "See, somebody's liking the warm water over there" he smiles, as Blackbird 'wakes up' The big stallion still leans against the wall starting to look a little off again, but he's no harm right now, just looks tired, really really tired. The medics may even start to notice that he's got a little more lean on the wall than most, but Sadaka is still in that stream of water, nice warm water.

Jellybean looks up at the medic. "Maybe one more please? I'm used to the cold but this is more chilly than I like." He's shivering, but not in a big way or anything. His ever watchful eye catches Magpie's snoot: the bigger pony gets a wave from the supposed-to-be-bigger pony.

Kludge has been busy in various areas of the base, mostly doing repair and reinforcement work. It's nice being able to do work and focus on the sturdiness without worry about the esthetics of the design! Having heard that there were some new ponies who came to medical from outside, he decided to take a look and see if it's anyone he knows. Sure enough, he recognizes the zebra filly. "Great - how many Harborites wound up here, anyway?" he sighs. At least Sadaka is in good hooves, as are the rest of the little expedition.

A Wild Blanket Golem draws near! Sound the alarms! It's shambling this way! It shuffles and drags! It moans and it groans! It's shedding its horrid covering as it starts slinging blankets about! Oh no! It's… it's Winter Solstice carrying a bunch of ratty ol' quilts and thermal covers. There's even a sparkly silver space blanket in there. The moaning and groaning? Her having talked while her voice was still muffled by three layers. "hummble mumble mmfle mumbld me that there were more ponies that were found outside! Gosh! At this rate the entire town is going to be brought over here! Do you want a blanket?" She offers a blanket to the medic. "Oh! Jelly! Here!" She drops an afghan on Jelly's head. "Jellybean! You weren't outside, were you? You're much too wee! That's not healthy at all! Here, have another." She drops the silver space blanket over his head. "Looks good on you. Hey! Hey! Hey, small fry! You're looking good!" She makes her way over to Magpie and beams a smile down at her. "That was pretty scary out there, wasn't iIIIAAAAAAHHHH" The looming mare draws in a sharp, sudden breath and quivers for a moment, reared up on her hind legs.

"CHOOOOOO!" A titanic sneeze rockets out of her nose and tosses Winter onto her duff. She sniffles as th e rest of the blanket heap collapses into a pile around her.
Magpie ducks her head a little and wiggles a hoof at Jelly. Then her eyes widen, and she tumbles tail over teakettle from the massive sneeze! She yeeps and wiggles back to her feet and gives the littler foal a reassuring smile. "Hi there. You got stuck here too, huh?"

"Sir, you've done enough," the lady from before says gently, nodding to Solar. "Let the little zebra down and go sleep. You look exhausted." She pulls her visor and snow mask off, revealing a mist-colored pony with a brown mane. The pony assisting Jelly, meanwhile, appears to be a gold-colored colt. "Another blanket it is!" He turns, only to be met with a blanket golem! "Wagh!"

Blackbird starts trying clumsily to get up to his hooves, but it's not in the cards for the moment. The medics with him in the shower try and reassure him, and keep him lying down, but he flattens his ears and tries again. "Sadaka's in trouble," he retorts with a bone-heade glare.

Sadaka nods, nervously rubbing at her hooves and squirming about a bit, half-successfully stifling a sneeze of her own. Ow, that made her nose sting. She rubs at it too, sniffling.

Her ears perk at Blackbird's sneeze, more so at his voice, and she clumsily tries to stand up on Solar's back — not an easy feat when one is all shivery and stiff. "P-papa?"

Jellybean is now a tiny blue foal neatly camouflaged by a mound of warm fabric. His muffled voice comes out from somewhere in there. "Pegasi are good with the cold," he explains.

Magpie giggles a bit and reaches up to push back the blankets over Jelly's head. "I just got here last night," she explains. "I.. uh… Winter Solstice saved me. We almost died out there."

Jellybean makes another characteristic meeping noise and noses Magpie. "I'm really glad you're okay! I'm really worried: what if there's more ponies out there? We need to find them soon!"

Winter-Solstice wipes her nose with a shaggy foreleg and snorks charismatically. She adjusts her position to sit more comfortably, and reaches over to pat Jelly through the blanket. "Yeah, and so am I, but this is even worse than normal cold! Be careful. We've got to get you back to Typhoon in one piece, after all. I bet she'll be pretty sour if you're all crinkly from being frozen. She seemed real sweet, too." While she chatters, she watches the rest of the group, looking at the unfamiliar faces. Sadaka looks familiar- didn't she get lost that one time during that one adventure? Hey! Good thing they found her- but Blackbird seems as familiar as any of the Base Ponies. Hmmm.

Solar-Wind shakes his head some coming out of it, blinkblinksnort, Oh, someone was talking to him. He acknowledges, though takes this time to pad out of the shower and gently ease Sadaka down before her father, "She's just fine, little chilled, but just fine" he mentions softly before looking back to the medic, and bowing his head wearily "Just, just call me if you need any help, I need to help, I really do" he murmurs softly as he steps away from Sadaka and her father, "oh, yeah, and for those that don't know me, ummm, I'm Solar-Wind, Captain of the Fireguard for our area, for Celestia, and , ya know the other" he trails off with a saddened sigh

The more Kludge hears, the more he's glad he arrived *inside* the base. Given his luck in adventuring, he'd have been a Kludgesicle if he had arrived outside, and he probably wouldn't have thawed out until dawn.

And yes, that phrasing was intentional.

At least he has tools and materials, so he can do /something/ useful while the researchers try to figure out how to solve things. He's never had to design anything to withstand this type of cold, but now would probably be a good time to start learning how.

Blackbird, being a normal ol' white pony with a wet green mop of hair, is a bit of a weird 'papa' for a zebra — but he reacts appropriately anyway. The Heroic Idiot starts trying to scramble out of the shower toward his ward, the medics having to physically restrain him now. "Are you okay? Are you h-hurt? Are you c-c-cold?" he stammers, straining against their hold. Even when Sadaka's released by Solar, he still reeeeeaches. (Fine example /you/ are, Blackbird.)

The medic who had been talking to Solar smiles. "I'm Dewdrop. Pleasure to meet you, Solar, sir. I'll be sure to get you if we need you." No she won't. She can see he needs his rest. She turns, spying Kludge near the entrance and tilts her head. "Do you need assistance, sir? Any other tools?" She's clearly seen him around.

Solar-Wind tips his head to Dewdrop per way of an understanding and glances around to the other gathered ponies, murmurs a "Goodnight, urr, whatever the hay you call it here" he mumbles evidently out of place around here. Before he leaves, "any pony point me to the Barrax, did, did I pass it? coming in here?" he asks "Cause I haven't seen it yet" He murmurs dozily

Kludge shakes his head at Dewdrop's questions. "Nah, I'm good. Was on break and heard that some new ponies were found outside, and I was wondering if it was anyone I knew," he explains. "Glad to see they're found and safe, but still mildly worried about the fact that they're here instead of home."

Jellybean wraps up in the blankets for the time being, seeming content now that everypony is okay to hunker down and warm up. Two big blue eyes stare out from underneath it all to look around at everypony else.

Dewdrop nods gravely to Kludge and to Magpie, before trotting after Solar. "Allow me to show you the way, sir. It's pretty close — but I don't blame you for getting lost. It can be quite the tangle." She smiles brightly at him and then takes the lead, leading him down and out to the dormitory area.

Magpie ummms. "Hey," she says to Jelly. "Can I … have one of those blankets?"

Solar-Wind follows after Dewdrop as he departs "yeah, would have gotten lost again, outside I'd never get lost" he murmurs, "at least not where i'm from" he notes as he wearrily follows her out and to the dorms.

Winter-Solstice looks to Magpie, then perks up. "Yeah, her! The one in white! Jumpin' on the spiders!" She collects one of the blankets strewn near her and reaches over to drop it on her head. "Here you go. Hey, what's your name, anyway? I don't think I ever caught it. Or maybe I did but I forgot. I'm having trouble remembering some of the stuff that happened yesterday. We made it back inside, though, right? Wait! We're here so of course we did."

Blackbird grabs Sadaka and sweeps her into his arms in a hug under the shower's stream. "I'm okay, Little Bit. J-j-just cold and…" He pauses, and chuckles, using her phrase, "and a little stingy." He pauses, though, to look over at Magpie and Winter. "Pony d-dressed in w-w-white? She s-s-saved us too. S-said the password was t-tutti f-f-frutti?"

Jellybean unfolds the tangle of blankets and opens it up, skooching closer to Magpie and draping it over her as well. Blankets plus another warm body.

Magpie blinks at Winter. "Um.. I never said. But I'm Magpie. And you're Winter Solstice. And you're…" She points at Jelly.

Magpie giggles a bit. "I wish I was a grown up too," she admits to him.

Winter-Solstice perks up as Blackbird speaks up. "Tutti Frutti! I didn't catch that part but that does sound like her. All in white, mask, snowsuit?" She waves at her backside. "Pants too?" She waves at her face. "Goggles! She seemed pretty cheerful. Very heroic. It was neat." She starts looking about for the Staff. "Hey, do you guys have any more white snowsuits? I want to go be a Hero of the Wastes, too. I mean I think there's a growing market for saving poor suckers whose flanks get dropped in the big freeze out of the blue." She glances over to Blackbird and Sadaka. "No offense. But that's TOTALLY what keeps happening to everybody." Pulling herself upright, she starts pacing restlessly. "I hope it stops soon, though. They're already totally pressed to keep everybody fed and in snow pants around here. Also, if everybody's zapped out of the town there will be nobody left to be customers at the shop. Although… although that means we could just set up the shop here since this is where all the customers are." She continues to talk to herself for several moments about inconsequential matters.

Jellybean nods a little and rests his head against the larger filly's shoulder.

Magpie awws. She nuzzles Jelly. "It'll be okay," she assures him. "Somepony'll figure it out and… send us home or somethin'."

Sadaka all but droops in relief, nestling into the hug. "G-good… I was worried." She sneezed again, blushing and wiping at her nose with one foreleg.
Jellybean says "I hope so. I have a letter to give to somepony when I'm finished writing it."

"We'll get home," the teacher tries to reassure the assorted. "Wherever home is…"

Magpie gives Jelly a little squeeze with one hoof. "Aww, it'll be okay… what're you writing?"

Jellybean blushes, shrinking into the blankets. "It's a love letter, I guess."

"Well, if you think about it, if everybody's here, we can just rebuild the town here," reasons Winter. "I mean it's technically the SAME PLACE, right? Just not… not the same VERSION of that place. But we can sort it out. There will have to be some changes, of course. No more docks since there are no more boats- unless we all start using those cool boats that glide over the ice with big wind sails pushing them! Yeah! And we can also fix some of the streets while we're at it. It always bothered me how Alfalfa Lane sort of meets Mane Street at that funny angle. It reminds me of a carrot, but like, -the bad kind.- So we'll fix that first. Does anybody remember the order of the bars down by the portside? I think it goes the Conch, the Laughing Scallop, and the Lusty Seapony, or was it the Laughing Scallop, the Lusty Seapony, and the Conch?" She glances about. Everybody's being all sad and homesick instead. Winter's general bubbliness deflates a bit. She scuffs at the floor with a hoof. "Man, this place just sucks the fun out of everything, even urban design."

Magpie says without thinking about it, "Coming up from the bay, it's the Conch, then the Seapony, and then the Scallop."

Winter-Solstice snaps a hoof and points at Magpie. "Yeah! That's what it was!" She smiles, then stops, stares at her hoof, and waggles it for a few moments, trying to figure out what she just did and failing.

Kludge gives Winny a wry grin. Trust the loveable lummox to have ideas that are both internally logical and completely crazy! As for himself, "homesick" isn't quite accurate, although it's one of the least inaccurate descriptions. "Winny, this could easily be considered the biggest adventure I've ever been on. Even bigger than those times I help in the search for Faux Pas' fortune. And you know how *those* went for me."

Magpie considers quietly and says after a while, "I don't think it'd matter much, though. I mean, uh… where would you get the booze from? Where would your ships go?"

Blackbird blinks at Winter, for a long moment. "Are you crazy? We can't stay here! It's dangerous! We need to get home!"

Sadaka blinks and lays her ears back. "I don't w-wanna stay h-here… I d-don't have any of m-my stuff, and it's r-really cold, and… and… and the s-stars are all… d-different, and m-missing…" she glances down, sniffing a bit. "I don't l-like it. I don't w-wanna live in a storybook."

Winter-Solstice shakes her head briskly. "I'm not crazy, but thank you for checking! But aren't they always telling you home is where the heart is? I could get to like this place. As long as we figure out how to fix the sun. Do that and it'll be just as good as home! The old home, that is…" She quiets a bit as her idea is roundly voted down, and sighs, scuffing a hoof again. "Man, okay, fine. I guess it would be easier to go back to all of our old stuff instead of getting new stuff. It isn't exactly easy to get new stuff here anyway, what with the spiders bein' all, BLEAH when you're just out getting FIREWOOD, that's aaaHHHHH-" The mare rears up and waggles her front hooves for one moment, chest swelling outward around a massive held breath.

"CHOOOOOOOOOO!" She sneezes and blasts herself backward once more, thunking into the wall and sliding down into a heap on the floor. Sniff. Cough. Slowly she repositions her sprawl so she's facing the others. "Ugh. Hey, Kludge. Hey. I know this is probably a lot more adventure than you asked for, but you made it out okay from the treasure hunt, didn't you? I'm sure you'll be fine now. This is basically the same thing, except instead of ghost pirate goo monsters there's a nightmare world of eternal night. But the principle is the same."

Magpie ducks down into the blankets at that massive sneeze, then pokes out again once it's safe. "Um… So… can I… ask a question?"

"And instead of exploding treasure, we have enough cold to turn Tartarus into a snow-cone? Heh," replies Kludge. Turning to Magpie, he adds "Ask away; if I know the answer, I'll mention it."

Magpie says "Um. Well. Last night you said this is like… Nightmare Moon's world, right? Where she won and made it always night?"

"That's what they told us," explains Winter in an upside-down fashion, still sprawled. She reaches over, drags a blanket close, and tucks it under her head like a pillow. When in Rome, make lemonade. "I just got here the other day, though, I don't know how much it's true. I'm still kinda hoping they'll be like, SURPRISE and just turn on the sun back on and stuff, like this is just a big joke." She adjusts. "Like Celestia could do it any time she wanted but she just messes around with people for fun because she's a jerk. Like… like she's fishing for a reaction. Like she's Fishlestia here."

Magpie blinks at Winter. Um. "Well, I was just wondering, I mean… if Nightmare Moon made it always night, right, because she wants everypony to see how good night is, right… why can't we see the moon?

Huh. Good question. "I'm not that well versed in astronomy, so I can't give you an answer to that," admits Kludge.

Winter-Solstice says "You can still see the moon!" She sits up slightly and waggles a hoof upward. "When the clouds break. It's bright and white like a big angry eye. Looks terrible. Not very much fun at all. I bet wolves want to howl at it and they go AWOOOoooh never mind sorry because they're just scared into shutting up."

Magpie blinks. "Yeah, but… y'know. It's MOSTLY clouds and stuff."

Magpie says "I mean, I'm just thinkin'."

Jellybean whimpers and hides under the blankets again. Wolves are scary.

Magpie hugs Jelly…
Windrose has been here the entire time. Maybe. At the moment, she's curled up in a corner in her wings trying to keep warm enough to sleep. And occasionally figiting now and then in doing so.

Winter-Solstice twists and rolls and pops up to her feet, aloft for a half second before landing heavily on all four hooves. Thump. She reaches down to scoop the blanket it up and sling it over onto the pile under which Jelly and Magpie huddle. Magpie's SO covered in blankets now it's like you can't even SEE her at ALL! "Anyway, I guess I better go get ready to get that load of firewood I was trying to get yesterday. Probably see if there are any spiders left to smash, too."

Jellybean peeks. "Can I help? With the wood. Not the spiders."

Winter-Solstice pauses. She looks to Jellybean, an unusual degree of concern in her expression. "I dunno, 'Bean. It's just heavy lifting. Normally I'm all for sharing the adventure but you just got back in from it, didn't you?"

The conversations seem to finally penetrate the fog of sleepiness, as with a bit of stirring Windrose untucks her head from under a wing. Then spreads them to stretch as she yawns… though once she takes a look around her expression immediately goes crestfallen. "… Trot it all, I was hoping this was just the dream, not the dream I was having about my nice warm clouds."

Jellybean thinks for a moment, then nods. "Okay, miss Solstice."

Winter-Solstice smiles to Jelly. "Don't worry, Jelly. As soon as I know the spiders are taken care of we can go out and look around if you want. I made a snowpony out there, I'll take you to meet him sometime." She turns to go, and notices Windrose at last. "Mornin', sunshine! Except there is no morning here, nor is there any sunshine, ever! Ha ha ha! Yeah, sorry, we're still stuck." After that motivational speech, she whistles cheerfully and wanders out of the room.

Windrose just flat-brow glowers at Winter in return. "Yes. We're well aware of that." But she's leaving? "Wait, where the hay are you going?"

Winter-Solstice pops her head back in. "Outside. To get a big wagon full of firewood. 'Cause there's too many ponies here and we need all the supplies we can get. And I had to leave them behind yesterday when Magpie and Sodium Fizz showed up with a poof." She watches Windrose for a few moments, then ducks back behind the corner, and is gone again for reals this time no take backs.

.. And meanwhile Jellybean has gone back to sleep. Windrose lets out a huff that flops her curly bangs briefly. "Sure, I wake up and now everyone is leaving." Or sleeping. Pause. Blink. "More ponies showed up here? What the hay is that suppose to be, a delayed reaction?" Though she's probably just talking to herself at this point

Kludge shrugs. "When there's magic weird enough to displace ponies to an alternate universe, there's always a chance that it's weirder than it first appears," he points out.

Windrose ohs, there's Kludge. She didn't realize he was still here too. "… I suppose. Not that we need any more weirdness." She looks up, and lets out a sigh. Then gets up on her hooves. "Welp, just sitting around and grousing about it isn't going to do anything, and I'd rather be doing something that potentially proves to be pointless than doing nothing at all."

"Makes sense," agrees Kludge. "It's why I volunteered for the repair crew. Might as well do what I'm good at, and let those with more courage be their adventurous selves."

Windrose mehs, rubbing her eyes with the back of a foreleg. "If I'd been more awake I'd gone out to help Winny." Then looks around. "… Granted, not entirely sure what else I -could- here at the moment."